Portable Lighting with the Rosco LitePad Kit

I am always in pursuit of new lighting technology, and this Rosco LitePad kit knocked me out with its size, versatility, color and punch. This light is LED technology, but used in a very different way than all the other lights on the market. It requires no heat syncs like a LitePanel light and is 3/8 of an inch thick. The big difference is that it does not fire the LED directly at you. It fires them sideways onto a white source that becomes your light. This is a very big deal. We are always looking for soft sources, and these are very creamy without diffusion added. I took the light and moved it around our subject to show you the quality of it without diffusion.

The main reason I was attracted to this kit is the light quality. Period. You can also purchase egg crates with the kit to control the source or use black wrap like I did to control the light in the taxi cab in The Ticket. We had the actress hold the light that kissed the underside of her cheek perfectly, while also lighting Vince in the center of the back seat. This was done with a single 6″ x 12″.

When we turned around on the scene, I turned to the 12” x 12” LitePad and filled the actors in from the front, creating the feel like the light was coming from the front window. We dialed it down with the dimmer. This was essential so that the outside lights of Sunset Blvd. that were playing inside the car were not overpowered.

The kit comes with 12 lights (6 Tungsten and 6 Daylight) in a rolling Pelican case. Recently, I have used these lights on two commercial campaigns. Their small profile, the fact that they don’t generate much heat, and the different ways to power them have allowed me to utilize them in a lot of different scenarios. In the cockpit of a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, they cast Deep Golden Amber light to mimic it coming from the dials in a night flight.

I also used them on a DWI PSA called “Aftermath” in New Mexico. We had a totaled vehicle that we purchased from a junk yard. All of its electrical systems failed to work. We wanted to show that the car had just gotten into a wreck, so we ripped the tail lights and headlights out of the vehicle and inserted our LitePads to give us the glow of the red tail lights as well as the blinding nature of the headlights. It worked like a champ.

This was lit only with a 12W Rosco LitePad and exterior lighting.

Two of the lights were used as a tail light gag in the back of this smashed car

On the Boeing campaign, we used gaffers tape to affix them to the ceiling of these drone piloting mobile stations. We placed some medium red color on them, and all of a sudden, we were in battle station mode. An actress hand holding it in the back of a car, filling a jet’s cockpit with golden amber light, using it as a tail light gag in the back of a junked car – I love the versatility!

The Rosco LitePad HO+ Everywhere Kit

12 lights in a rolling Pelican case

12 led lights in daylight and tungsten balance

The led lights are dimmable with this attachment

The lights can be powered off a dionic battery with a D-tab cable

Rear bracket with baby pin attached for easy rigging

Here is some example footage we shot with the LitePad kit being used in an interview style setup to show how it looks on camera. We used the daylight and tungsten balanced pads and compared to a different style led light.

This was a basic three point lighting interview style setup. We had a wash of sunlight coming from a rear skylight used to backlight our actor. For the key, we shot two LitePads though a light grid cloth. Lastly, right above the camera was a small dimmed down pad used as a fill/eye light.

Observations

Compared to the older style LED lights, we noticed the LitePads achieved a very soft quality to them because the LEDs are bouncing off of a white pad. They’re not blasting straight on.

Rosco LitePads lighting shooting through light grid cloth diffusion

The lights held up well competing with the strong daylight source. The wrapping quality of the lights was quite nice as well, especially paired with diffusion. There was a slight green shift when we switched to the tungsten balanced lights, but we were able to dial it out easily by adding a little bit of magenta on the custom white balance option of the Canon 5D.

I played with these when I visited filmtools in Burbank a couple of months ago. I was amazed at how much punch they put out compared to how small they are. Also much slimmer than litepanels. Thinking of picking up one of those kits. Seems like this would be an item to own v.s. rent as they’re more delicate than other lights? What does the Go anywhere kit run?

Jon Chema. Thanks for the kind words and support. I decided to buy the lights because I use them all the time, and I find they’re pretty durable as long as they travel in the case and aren’t dropped. It runs $3373 on B&H right now, the link is added above.

I reviewed Rosco’s LitePad HO+ kit last October, Shane and I couldn’t agree with you more. These lights look stunning and give off a very even, soft light with a nice wrap. I liked their versatility and the no heat factor. They also stood up pretty well when mounted on a DSLR as a light source. Did you see their Light Loop at NAB this year? Thanks for sharing the review!

Greatful if anyone would chime in. In terms of portabel lighting, how would I light fully one person in sunshine? I guess these and other leds are not bright enough. Is Reflection the only way to go? Thanks for a great educational site.

Jonas.Your best bet is shaping the sunlight with negative fill, diffusion, and reflection when you don’t have powerful lights like HMIs to compete with the sunlight. Thanks for the comment and support.

D, I would say that the Rosco kit is more of a lighting gag, hiding in tight places, car interiors, monitor, tv light gag. For interviews I would stick with your Kino Flo kit, more versatile in those applications.